Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to transform Twitter into a new, all-encompassing service called X could potentially include the ability to make payments. Experts believe this could have implications for cryptocurrencies, particularly Musk’s beloved Dogecoin (DOGE). The billionaire has long been vocal about creating an everything app that would include social media, messaging, and the ability to buy and send money. Crypto could easily be part of that, given Musk’s history with digital assets. Tesla, his car company, holds Bitcoin, and he has often discussed DOGE. Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool, he tweeted in 2019.
Musk’s vision for X dates back to his time at PayPal, which was originally called X.com. Twitter has already obtained money transmitter licenses in three U.S. states, which could be used to build a payments tool. It’s clear that he’s keenly interested in turning the rebranded Twitter into something of a payments behemoth, and so it’s only natural that he would explore incorporating crypto in this functionality, said Phillip Shoemaker, executive director of Identity.com.
A move into the crypto space wouldn’t be new for the app, which already partnered with Jack Mallers-led payments startup Strike in September 2021 to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) tipping feature. If we consider Musk’s vision for creating an everything app, it would be an absolute game-changer to incorporate cryptocurrency payments as part of that ecosystem, said Raluca Cherciu, the co-founder and CEO of unpaired.
Brian D. Evans, CEO and founder of BDE Ventures, believes that Musk could enable payments via DOGE. Elon clearly has an affinity for DOGE, almost as part of a running joke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually went through with enabling payments via DOGE, he said.
If Musk does incorporate crypto payments into X, it could broaden the use of digital assets. However, it’s not guaranteed to move the needle on crypto adoption, given Musk’s many detractors.